The original Star Trek is a fandom that my father and I shared since I was very young. I remember watching the old episodes on TV with him, and him taking my sister and me to see the films. This close to the anniversary of Dad's death, the loss of an actor I admired and whose iconic character I often empathized with in my middle- and high-school years as a brainy geek seems especially poignant.

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This is really only relevant to the folks nearby, or those farther away who might still have fond memories....

Apparently, UB SARPA is no longer going to be holding Open Gaming in Baldy Hall as of the Spring 2014 semester at UB. The reason cited is lack of interest among the university undergrads, who were actually the people the event was designed for; the alumni and local gamers were really just ancillary members.

I have many fond memories associated with Open Gaming; it's where I played and GMed my first games, and where I met a number of friends, many of whom I'm still close to today.

I'd be lying if I said I wasn't disappointed by this turn of events, but there's not much of a choice. We'll simply have to find another place to game.

I'm feeling: disappointed

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I attended some cool panels (the Kamen Rider and "Artist Alley 101" ones was really great), picked up some neat stuff in the Dealer Room and Artist Alley, and just generally enjoyed three days of Japanese pop culture goodness.

This year I cosplayed Dekayellow of Tokusou Sentai Dekaranger, and received many compliments. I also got the chance to participate in a Super Sentai/Power Rangers photoshoot, which was a lot of fun, despite the heat (we had so many people they moved us out of the BCC to the Inner Harbor). Our shoot attracted a number of kids who wanted their pictures taken with us; that was cute.

Speaking of sentai, I also managed to get Tomokazu Seki's autograph on our copy of the Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger character book (he's the voice of all their equipment). C and I also got to see his Q&A, which was very entertaining.